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KPBS Radio highlighted a new study today by UCSD School of Pharmacy

In a new analysispublished Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports, UC San Diego researchers said millions of FDA side effect records reveal that people who took ketamine for pain relief reported lower rates of depression.

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“The occurrence of complaints about depression dropped in half after ketamine administration,” said UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy professor Ruben Abagyan, who led the study.

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The researchers focussed on the FDA’s Adverse Effect Reporting System, a database that tracks negative side effects among people who take various drugs. But the researchers were not primarily interested in bad outcomes.

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Instead, they looked for a positive outcome: declining rates of depression among people taking drugs not typically thought of as antidepressants.

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They found signs that other common drugs — including Botox, a pain reliever called diclofenac and the antibiotic minocycline — also reduced depression among patients in the FDA database.

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[minocycline is a glial modulator and it can prevent CRPS from spreading.]

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University of Miami psychiatry professor Charles Nemeroff wrote that the study was, “very interesting.”

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“The findings are of considerable interest. However the interpretation of the findings are key,” he wrote, saying it will be important to understand whether ketamine is directly treating depression or simply relieving pain, which can indirectly help people experience less depression.

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The UC San Diego researchers said they controlled for this variable by comparing people who took ketamine with those who took other pain medications. They said they still found a larger drop in depression among those who took ketamine.

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This is the open source (free) article in Nature with brief excerpts below:

.Isaac V. Cohen, Tigran Makints, Rabia Atayee, Ruben Abagyan

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We found that patients listed in the FAERS database who received ketamine in addition to other therapeutics had significantly lower frequency of reports of depression than patients who took any other combination of drugs for pain (LogOR −0.67 ± 0.034) (Fig. 1c). This reduction in depression is specific to ketamine and is known to be much more rapid than current antidepressants, making this observed effect very promising for treatment of patients with acute depressive or suicidal episodes. These patients cannot afford to wait up to six weeks for reductions in their depressive symptoms. Pain reports were also significantly lower for ketamine patients (LogOR −0.41 ± 0.019) (Fig. 1c).

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The analysis of the whole FAERS database revealed several other unintentional depression reducing drugs among antibiotics, cosmeceuticals and NSAIDS (Fig. 2). Our data supported previous studies that observed the psychiatric polypharmacology of minocycline [my emphasis], a tetracycline antibiotic14 (Fig. 2). The NSAID, diclofenac [that has highest incidence of heart attack and cardiac arrhythmia of any NSAID], was also observed to have some antidepressant properties (Fig. 2). It is theorized that both of these drugs may accomplish antidepressant effects through an anti-inflammatory mechanism. Because of the antidepressant activity of several NSAIDs, we further separated the non-ketamine pain cohort. Ketamine patients were then compared to patients who received any other combination of drugs for pain excluding NSAIDs. It was observed that depression event rates remained low (LogOR −0.56 ± 0.035) (Fig. 2)..The reduction of depression rates in ketamine patient records makes a case for study of ketamine as a psychiatric drug. These results imply that ketamine may be further explored as a monotherapy or adjunct therapy for depression. It should also be noted that FAERS data revealed that ketamine use [may] lead to renal side effects and awareness and caution in patients with renal or hepatic impairment may be warranted (Fig. 1a and b). [my emphasis].

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As an important side note, we also evaluated efficacy and side effects with the use of ketamine for pain management. We found that patients who were on ketamine had reduced opioid induced side effects including constipation (LogOR −0.17 ± 0.023), vomiting (LogOR −0.16 ± 0.025), and nausea (LogOR −0.45 ± 0.034) than patients who received any other combination of drugs for pain indications (Fig. 1d). Our data supports ketamine’s opioid-sparing properties and alludes to the fact that patients may receive benefits of improved pain, reduced requirement of opioids, and ultimately less opioid reduced side effects.

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The results of this study support previous small scale studies’ conclusions that ketamine is a good monotherapy or adjunct therapy for depression. In clinical practice ketamine would be especially useful for depression because of the quick onset of its action compared to existing first line therapies. Regardless of the causative mechanism ketamine appears to have therapeutic potential for TRD. Further, the potential to reduce many of the most complained side effects of opioid treatment makes ketamine adjunct therapy for pain seem desirable.

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Overall, this study demonstrates that the therapeutic potential of ketamine can be derived from appropriate statistical analysis of existing population scale data. This study also outlines a methodology for discovering off label pharmacology of existing approved drugs. This method can be applied to other indications and may reveal new important uses of already approved drugs, providing reliable justification for new indications without large investments in additional clinical trials.

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FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. The FAERS database was created to support FDA’s post marketing surveillance on drugs and biologic therapeutics. It contains adverse reaction and medication error reports sent to the FDA through MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program. Reporting is voluntary and is done by patients, family members, legal representatives, doctors, pharmacists and other health- care providers. If any party reports an adverse effect to the manufacturer, the manufacturer is legally obligated to forward the report to the FDA. Data is available online in quarterly format for AERS from the first quarter of 2004 to the third quarter of 2012 and for FAERS from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2016.

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The study used over 8 million adverse event reports from first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2016. All the quarterly files from 2004 to 2016 were combined into a master file which was used as the primary source for analysis. . . .

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Out of 8 million reports, 279,853 reports were used for analysis of ketamine in Fig. 1. Two cohorts for ketamine (K) patients and pain (P) patients with 41,337 and 238,516 patients respectively....

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The material on this site is for informational purposes only.

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It is not legal for me to provide medical advice without an examination.

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It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider.

and raise money for important medical causes.

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This is not about class action law suits.

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This can be imaged early and likely treated.

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It’s about science and bringing medicine into the 21st century.

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A paradigm shift began with the discovery

of the innate immune system by internationally recognized scientists in 1991.

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The clock has been turned off.

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We can change this now.

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Funding is needed for internationally recognized leaders to continue this work.

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.The tragic deaths of former NFL football players from repeated concussions has led to brain damage and death from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Suicide profoundly shocks us when many players like Junior Seau at age 43 and now Tyler Sash, die at age 27. He is the youngest found to have such extensive brain damage, as bad as that seen in Junior Seau. So much can be done with state of the art science now that has been ignored.

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Disclosure: I was asked by a research institute if I would evaluate retired NFL players. I chose not to do that so that I might be free to post unbiased information that is not subject to being manipulated by either side in the ongoing appeals for compensation that must be going on with the NFL for $70 million. Tragic that this is such a fight. Even more tragic, this may be diagnosed early and treated.

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Pearls

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Fear of compensation claims after concussion injury prevents imaging of football players and veterans early, while still treatable, before severe changes and death.

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Fear of compensation claims has prevented decades of research funding by internationally recognized scientists. Could politics at NIH & the VA have turned off funding for veterans with pain and with concussion blast injuries? Does cancer and heart disease forever lock up all the research money and now it shifts to stem cells?

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It is inaccurate to say that CTE cannot be diagnosed except after death at autopsy.

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PET scan imaging of glia can show changes early, while alive.

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The ligand PK1195 must be used for PET scan to image glia, available for years in Australia, not yet in America.

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FDA approval must be obtained for the ligand PK1195 before it is used to image glia in the United States.

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CTE can be diagnosed early.

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CTE is likely to be treatable.

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Internationally distinguished scientists have shown reversal of complete paralysis in rat models of multiple sclerosis in 2010, a so called “degenerative” neurological disease.

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Intractable pain and treatment resistant depression can be put into remission with glial modulators. Surely CTE and other neurological diseases can be approached with scientifically recognized mechanisms and treatments – even if doctors are not aware of the paradigm shift and how to modulate neuro-inflammation. See years of posting on this site since 2009 based on the most important finds in the field of neuroscience for more than 100 years: the innate immune system, glia, neuro-inflammation, and ability to use glial modulators, to modulate intractable conditions that are known to lead to suicide and/or death.

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Paradigm shifts in all fields including medicine, fail to be recognized.

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CTE gives opioids a bad name and misled Taylor Sash and likely others from the diagnosis of CTE that caused years of severe forgetfulness and behavior changes. He may have chosen suicide by opioid.

FACT:

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Trauma such as concussion or infection or stroke triggers inflammation in the brain: “cytokine storm”

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Inflammation kills brain cells

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Inflammatory cytokines (inflammation) are produced by glia that has been activated by trauma or other causes such as infection, stroke, etc.

Activated glia produce neuroinflammation and cell death.

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Neuro-inflammation in brain has been found in teens with early signs of schizophrenia, in rats made depressed, and rodents with chronic pain.

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Glia have been detected in life, in vivo, with PET scan imaging, by internationally-recognised radiologist working at Imperial College London, now based in Australia.

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PET scans require a ligand, PK1195, approved for years in Australia – must be approved by FDA in the United States before it can be used here.

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There is good clinical data and publications in animal models to show that damage in brain and spinal cord produced by activated glia can be reversed.

E.g., In 2010, total paralysis has been completely reversed in a rat model of multiple sclerosis by internationally-recognised glial researcher who, in 1991, transformed the understanding of glia that comprise 85% of the brain, since then known to be the innate immune system.

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Publications have shown that patients with major depressive disorder and patients with chronic low back pain have memory loss and brain atrophy.

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Opioids cause pain by stimulating production of inflammatory cytokines that are known to damage neurons in brain and spinal cord – and must be tapered off. We have better treatment for pain.

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. Treatment with glial modulators that reduce neuroinflammation has been shown clinically to relieve treatment resistant major depressive disorder, PTSD, bipolar depression and intractable pain. They are neuroprotective.

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We need to be able to flag players off the field early and intervene with treatment such as glial modulators either before, during or after repeated injury.

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GOALS

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1. PK1195, a ligand for PET scans, must be tested and approved by FDA. Approval is mandatory for all medications or substances injected into vein or body.

. It simply “tags” the PET scanner to image glia, the cells of the innate immune system that are activated by trauma, infection, stroke, etc.

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2. Do serial PET scans using PK1195 to image glia in NFL players and veterans after blast injury.